In the context of a typical medical intervention like brachy therapy a pre-plan is performed based on pre-procedural imaging (e.g. MRI, ultrasound, X-ray) data, wherein treatment target structures are delineated, together with one or more critical organs to avoid. Often during brachytherapy a grid comprising a plurality of orifices is used to guide the insertion of catheters or needles in such a way that the final catheter or needle position resembles the planned position as close as possible.
Positioning means are used to align the grid correctly relative to a patient. The positioning means could be connectable to the patient table. After the patient and grid are positioned, the position of the grid can be calibrated with a medical imaging system. After this, based on a predetermined dose constraints an intervention plan (e.g. a HDR/LDR brachy treatment plan, thermal ablation plan) can be calculated, which plan provides needle insertion positions required to deliver a dose distribution that fulfills the prescribed dose constraints. In this way the positions in the grid through which catheters or needles need to be inserted during treatment can be determined.
The generation of the pattern and the adaptation to the specific geometry requires a lot of manual work.